With 63, Bjorn Gets Into Swing

-- Of all the players who could have shot 63 in the third round of the PGA Championship, Denmark's Thomas Bjorn -- with the possible exception of the handful of club pros who made the cut -- may have been the most unlikely. Still in the formative stages of a major swing overhaul, Bjorn seemed as surprised as anyone that fate chose him for that honor.

"I'm a bit further than I thought I was," Bjorn said with a laugh, following his 7-under-par round. " . . . I came in here with no expectations."

Not only did the round tie the course record for Baltusrol's Lower Course and equal the lowest score ever in a major championship -- achieved 19 other times, most recently by Vijay Singh in the second round of the 2003 U.S. Open -- but it also propelled Bjorn, for a brief time, into a share of the lead at the PGA Championship.

At day's end, Bjorn stood at 5-under for the tournament, a shot behind co-leaders Phil Mickelson and Davis Love III.

"This 63 is not about records," Bjorn said. "It's about this championship, and that's all it means to me -- that I got myself in position where I can play from here."

Bjorn, once among the most promising young players in Europe, decided he needed to make a major change shortly after finding himself standing on the 18th tee of the Old Course at St. Andrews during the second round of last month's British Open, realizing he needed to make bogey just to make the cut -- and then hitting his tee shot out of bounds and making double-bogey.

"I didn't believe in anything," he said. "I didn't have a shot I could go to when I was under pressure."

At that point, he said, "you've got to make a decision that what you're doing is not good enough."

Daly's Odd Putter

Of all the players who could have broken his putter Saturday by slamming it into his golf bag, and thus being forced to play the final eight holes of his round putting with his pitching wedge, John Daly may have been the most likely.

Daly, who began the day at even-par and in decent position to make a run at contention, predictably stumbled to a 40 on the back nine, leaving him with a 78 for the day.

Daly did, however, become just the second player this week to reach the 17th hole -- a 650-yard par-5 which is the longest hole in major championship history -- in two shots, leading to a two-putt (or more accurately, two-wedge) birdie. . . .